rebirth
by hi jump kick
Summary: crystal awakens, and finds herself in a rather curious place...and why is everyone behaving so strangely?
1. Chapter 1

golden combusken

"Where am I?" Her voice echoes in the darkness, adding emphasis to her solitude. Reaching up, she brushed the azure strands of hair from her eyes and rose. She was in a cell, a gray, bleak, colorless prison. On the door were many iron bars. As she rose to her feet, she noticed a dark-haired boy looking at her from outside the cell.

"Where am I?" she repeated, but the boy merely shook his head, and she could see tears gathering in his gold eyes.

"I'm sorry," was all he whispered, before he turned and walked away. She clung desperately to the metal bars, trying to see where the boy went, but there was a fog that condensed just outside of her cell that obscured her view.

Over the course of the day (she thought it was a day, but couldn't tell because she couldn't see outside), a red-haired boy, an old, withered man in a lab coat, and (strangest of all) a small, green creature with crimson eyes and a leaf-like growth protruding from its head.

The creature keened sadly, looking up at her with such sad eyes that she bent down and reached through the bars to it. It nuzzled against her hand, slightly fuzzy, like a peach.

_"Chik, chika."_ it said, and then backed away. It gazed at her for a moment more, then turned tail and ran away, out of her line of sight.

This was the end of day one.

The next day, she awoke to the sight of the red-haired boy. Quickly getting up and glancing at herself in the mirror, she noticed that her eyes weren't as green as usual, but a darker, mossy color. At second glance, her hair was no longer the bright cerulean she had loved, but a less flashy blue, a deep cobalt.

Turning away from this strange sight, she met the gaze of the red-haired boy.

"Crys," he said, and at the sound of her name, memories came flooding back. Her name was Crystal, she lived in New Bark Town, she raised a chikorita, and she had two best friends, one of whom was standing in front of her.

"Oh, Silver," she gasped, reaching through the bars to embrace him, "where am I? What's happening? Where's my pokemon?" Silver embraced her back.

"I thought you'd forgotten me, Crys." His silvery eyes were sad, like the chikorita's had been, and Crystal frowned.

"No, I'd never forget you, Silver. It's just…" here, she paused, trying to think, "…hard to remember. What is this place?"

Silver shook his head. "I can't tell you, Crys. It'd break your heart."

"Please, Silver! I'm scared!"

The boy, wise beyond his years, chose not to. It would be better for her.

"Good bye, Crystal," he said finally, and, detaching himself from her grasp, started to walk away.

"Will I see you again?"

The boy stopped, but did not turn to face her. He desperately wanted to, but he didn't think he would be able to handle it. Looking at her face again would etch it into his mind forever, even after her spirit was gone.

"Y-Yes." His lips articulated. _No._

And with that, he walked out of her life forever.

This was the end of day two.

Crystal awoke early the next morning, and quickly made her way to the cracked mirror. Astonished, she now looked at a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl instead of her own blue-haired and green-eyed visage. Stumbling back, she collapsed onto the tiny futon-bed, chocolate eyes filling with tears.

"W-what is h-h-happening?" she sobbed, sniffling. She remained face down on her bed for an indeterminate amount of time, until a voice cut through her sniffles and cries.

"Get up." The voice was deep and commanding. Crystal immediately lifted her head to see a man in a white lab coat, and a surgical mask covering the lower portion of his face. Crystal stood cautiously, but did not approach the bars of the cell. The man held up a ring of keys, and, selecting one, inserted it into the lock. The cell door opened with a creak, and the man beckoned to her.

She hesitated, indecisive, but the man reached in and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her out of the cell. She whimpered in fear, and the man looked down at her.

"I won't hurt you." Crystal looked up at him, terrified, but decided to cooperate and start walking on her own.

"Who are you?" she asked as they walked down one of the many identical hallways. The man glanced down at her, eyes glinting.

"My name is Ken. And I'm taking you to the upgrade room."

"What is that?" she asked, biting her lip in worry. "Does this have to do with my eyes and hair changing color?"

Ken nodded. "We've decided…to go a different direction with you, Crystal. Your sprite will no longer be needed."

Crystal was confused. "Go a different direction?" she said, bemused. "Sprite?"

Ken merely nodded. As they reached a door, Ken opened it, and two men in lab coats looked up from an operating table.

"Mr. Sugimori," one nodded, and Ken nodded in return.

"Here is the girl. You know what to do." Ken gently nudged Crystal forward, and she glanced at him worriedly. "Wh-what's going to happen to me?"

None of the men said anything, and Crystal started to shiver in fear.

_"Chiko! Chik!" _Crystal turned to the door, and the chikorita appeared in it. The pokemon sidestepped Ken and the two men in lab coats, and leaped into Crystal's arms. Crystal buried her face in the pokemon's fuzz.

"Oh, Chikorita!" she said. "I'm sorry I didn't remember before, but I remember now! I love you, Chikorita! I…"

The two men tore the pokemon from Crystal's arms, and Ken shoved her back onto the lab table, strapping her limbs in before she could react.

"You had to make this even harder than it had to be, Crys." Ken said grimly. "You…remembered."

Then, Mr. Sugimori walked over to a control panel and hit a few buttons.

"Good bye, Crys."

Crystal could feel herself drifting off, the chikorita's panicked cries the last thing she heard before she blacked out.

_The brown-haired girl sat up on the lab table, three men looking at her approvingly. She had a strange feeling she knew one of these men's names, but she dismissed the notion as silly._

_ As she looked around, two boys entered the room, looking at her cautiously. One was redheaded, the other had black hair._

_ "Hi!" she said cheerfully. "What are your names?" One of the boys dropped his head, the other's chin quivered. Huh. That was strange._

_ Another man entered the room, holding a small green creature. He set it down on the table next to her, and it nuzzled her._

_ "Hi, sweetie," the girl cooed at it. "What kind of creature are you?"_

_ The creature stopped nuzzling her, and looked up at her sadly. It hopped down from the table and left the room, head bowed. Strangely enough, the creature had seemed rather familiar._

_ "Lyra." One of the men walked forward until he stood directly in front of her. _

_ "Is that my name?" She sounded rather slow, but she honestly couldn't remember a thing about herself, no matter how hard he tried. _

_ "Yes."_

_ The girl, dubbed Lyra, reflected. She never remembered having a name like that, but had a vague feeling that she had had another name before this one, and this identity was a skin covering her other identity that she could only catch fleeting glimpses of._

_ "Cr…Lyra!" the dark-haired boy said, almost desperately. "Do you remember me? It's me, Gold!"_

_ She did not know him, and she shook her head. But there was something the boy had almost said. He had articulated the beginnings of another word before he said her name. Was it her former name?_

_ She could not remember._


	2. Chapter 2

_part two_

_/_

Sometimes, Megaree observed, Lyra would assume an entirely different (yet all too familiar) persona. The meganium dubbed this personality _the other girl. _When they were out on the road traveling, or sitting by a fire, the brunette would say something that _the other girl_ said once before.

This was usually followed by Lyra staring down at the ground, brows furrowed in deep thought. Megaree pitied her. It was not her fault she could not remember.

_It was theirs, _Megaree would think with venom. Her own trainer hadn't even remembered her. And, even now, she had these episodes of white noise where she didn't even remember who she herself was.

Of course, it would be confusing if you had been two different people along the course of your short, pathetic life.

So, when these events occurred, instead of bellowing his rage to the universe, he would nuzzle her comfortingly and coo loving words in her ear.

But, when the girl was asleep, Megaree would stare up at the stars, golden eyes darkened with anger at the thought of his poor trainer's brain being modified. They were supposed to have known what they were doing. _But they lied. _And now, his beloved trainer was lost somewhere in the recesses of this addle-minded girl.

Oh, she would laugh and smile and say things like _she _had, but her seizures and bouts of amnesia were just too much.

Megaree knew she had lumps on her brain that would swell like leech seeds, would engulf and destroy and _kill._

So he would hope that before this girl died, that he could catch a glimpse of Crystal in her eyes, see a spark of recognition when she looked at him, or even call him by his actual name instead of just 'meganium'.

And, sometimes, when she spoke to him, his ears would deceive him. It would almost sound like she called him by his name.

But then she would murmur _meganium_, and Megaree knew it was just a sweet fantasy.

A sweet, cyanide-laced fantasy.


End file.
